Glosses and Marginalia, 1/11

The Advocate's cover story, by James Kirchick:

Breaking a record set by LBJ, Barack Obama managed to get his party in Congress to agree with him nearly 97% of the time. (CQ's Congress.org)  One reason why Obama is unpopular: Congress is unpopular. 

Sarah Palin will become a Fox News contributor beginning soon, and she'll host her own series. (NYT). One more reason why I don't think she'll run for President in 2012: she'll get used to the comfort of TV consulting.

Newt Gingrich thinks Michael Steele is doing a good job. Reporters are trying to divine Newt's motivation, but maybe Newt just thinks what he thinks.

Scott Brown's "moneybomb" raised $273,000 in Massachusetts. The Democrats send a strategist to the state. (The Hill).  Democratic GOTV will be much better than GOP GOTV; GOP enthusiasm is higher than Dem enthusiasm. To watch for: does Biden make an appearance in the state? If so, Coakley's in real trouble.

I didn't get a high enough SAT score to know what "buncombe" meant without looking it up, but that shouldn't stop you from reading this dispatch from Michael Scherer of Time.

For some reason, the Daily Telegraph thinks John Edwards remains an influential liberal.

Scott Rassmussen dissects the different polls in Massachusetts. 

IL SEN: Mark Kirk's first ad is a bio spot.

Via Ben Smith, the New York Post has a political blog. (!) 

Ezra Klein on why the political media ought to be more like the NFL. 

Andrew Cohen on why same-sex-marriage is coming more quickly than you might think.